1996 Preface

PREFACE:

Introduction to the Past

The mind of a child - innocent and carefree without the burdens of adulthood or the worries of the world. Begun as the fulfillment of an English assignment, a 10-year old elementary school student wrote about what he knew best: himself and his friends. Borrowing from L. Frank Baum’s “Oz” books, Lewis Carroll’s “Wonderland” and far too many hours of television viewing, this young man created a world of fantasy. With a title paraphrased from Shakespeare, To Shrink or Not To Shrink was born in 1973.

The following year, an 11-year old took his characters through their paces once again in a sequel, The Green Devil Strikes Again. Whether this was done to fulfill another English assignment is no longer known. The two books were bound in Art class and a classmate was asked to illustrate.

The year 1976 saw a junior high school student write what he considered to be his masterpiece. With the very adult title of The Time Tornado he drew from his vast wealth of newly acquired knowledge and experiences (as vast as possible for a 13-year old). When subsequently combined with his first two books, his trilogy would be complete.

Now in 1977, an adult (as he considered himself) decided to rewrite his books from an adult perspective. With his newly grasped ‘adult’ outlook on life, the characters and situations were revised and typed (on a manual!) for the first time. Unfortunately, this 13-year old got caught up in extracurricular activities at school and he never got around to revising The Time Tornado. This was indeed ‘unfortunate’ because had he gotten around to his self-proclaimed masterpiece, he would have discovered that a year previously, it had been left incomplete; ending mid‑sentence and mid‑thought without leaving any clues as to its continuation or completion. This fact went unnoticed for another eight years.

Times change. Styles change. Attitudes change. After a five year stint in the military, a 22-year old in 1985, dusted off an old notebook discovered under a chest of drawers in his bedroom. Scanning through the pages he found himself engrossed by the stories that seemed foreign to him. Not believing that he had been the youth from whose imagination these had sprung, he eagerly ravaged through the pages.

Coming to an abrupt end in the middle of Chapter 9 of The Time Tornado, he just sat there dumbstruck. What could he (the youth) possibly have been thinking? What was to have happened next? With no idea how it was to have proceeded, he decided that the time had come for a complete overhaul.

An “Introduction” was written (which will be included here in its entirety). Cover pages were redone to replace the old tattered, hand-drawn pages of youth. A thorough read of the original texts and the 1977 rewrite/retype was initiated. Confusion ensued due to the vast differences in the two versions and before the task of rewriting and revising was begun, he became frustrated... distracted... preoccupied....

Time marched on. Nothing more was done in 1985.

Welcome to 1990. A new decade... the last decade of the century. The youth is now a man. At age 27, for the third time, he rediscovers the writings from his past. They bring back happy memories of his youth. They remind him of an innocence lost. They spur his long-since-idle imagination into gear. His adrenaline begins to flow with anticipation of finishing what had been started.

But how to proceed? Do the stories (as they can no longer be considered ‘books’) get a face lift? Should the innocence of the originals be left intact? Could a rewrite be initiated without the sarcasm and cynicism of adulthood creeping in? ¾ And would that be such a bad thing? Douglas Adams successfully wrote an adult fantasy with sarcasm and cynicism in his A Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (the world’s first four book trilogy). [Revised in 1992 to become “the world’s first five book trilogy”].

The proper answers to these questions may never been known. For that matter, this Preface (as with the rest of this project) may continue to go unread. To date, only the first two stories have ever been read by others [excluding his wife, that is].

This is the dilemma now faced by the former youth; but onward he shall proceed. Whatever becomes of it, he will know that he has completed the task; he has finished his trilogy.

If all of this ‘prefacing’ seems a bit unconventional and unnecessary for a book, please forgive and remember; this may well be as far as he gets before shoving it back into the old notebook and back under the dusty chest of drawers for another unknown span of time.

The original “Introductions” to each story will be included as a matter of curiosity. If the thoughts seem childish, again remember... they are. Welcome to the mind of a youth. I... er... he hopes you enjoy it.

April 16, 1990 / May 1, 1996

New York / Los Angeles

P.S. - This rewrite has now taken 6 years to accomplish successfully, I hope it is worth it! Current day editorial comments will be made throughout the Introductions and be indicated with brackets “[ ]” to separate them from the text. The original and revised “Dear Readers” introductions will be included for both To Shrink or Not To Shrink and The Green Devil Strikes Again. In addition, new 1990 Introductions (labeled as Part I and Part II) have been written to help the flow and continuity of the two stories. The Introduction to The Time Tornado is completely new as is The Time Tornado Prologue.